I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 28 years, disabled daughter, adult son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!I suppose I could have done the last several posts in one big one, but I keep forgetting to add one more thing, so it just works out this way today. I think this is my fifth.
I took a survey with Your2Cents today and have a $6 check coming from them in the next 3 to 5 weeks.
The one that arrived today took the whole 5 weeks, though it is generally closer to 3 in the past. It will go in the vacation fund when it arrives.
Survey Payout
March 6th, 2007 at 04:13 am
March 6th, 2007 at 04:31 am 1173155491
March 6th, 2007 at 05:10 am 1173157859
1) Consolidate all your accounts into GE Interest Plus (geinterestplus.com). The rates are higher than anything I've found and you can get a $25 sweetner for opening the account. I would suggest having your paychecks directly deposited into this account as well as anything else. Essentially, this will become your primary account where all your money sits until it needs to move (to pay bills, etc) so you maximize the interest you earn. Any money sitting in a regular bank checking account is a waste. One quirk about this account is that when you write a check from it, it must be for a minimum of $250...but that's not an issue as I'll note in the next bit.
2) You should continue to have a regular checking account. Find one that does not require any minimum balance...even if it means they don't pay any interest. If you are keeping everything in your GE Interest Plus account, it won't matter. This checking account should also have an online payment feature. If you aren't using it already, you should start. You can setup all your payments and schedule them in advance if you like. It also makes bookkeeping much easier as it tracks everything for you...versus balancing a checkbook. I gather you like to pay your bills in person, etc. I might suggest you try and get over that as the online option is more efficient. When you are ready to pay bills, you can write a check from GE Interest Plus into your checking account and then pay it from there (either everything or just anything less than $250). Basically, you only want the money sitting in there long enough to send it out the door to pay bills.
3) 401(k) - I strongly suggest finding a way to get up to 6% to get the full match. I have no doubt you are more than aware that you are essentially turning down free money, but just can't figure out how to make it work. Although some might disagree, I would argue that you postpone any savings (emergency or otherwise), any additional payments (ex: like the additional principal on your mortgage, or even reduce your credit card payments to a certain extent in order to figure out how to make this happen. Your credit is good and you should be able to continue getting low credit card rates for a year at a time to give you the flexibility you need. I haven't crunched the numbers, but at those lower rates, I'll bet that the additional match from your husband's employer plus the pre-tax savings plus the additional returns earned on the investment, will outweigh whatever you might be losing on the credit card side. If your husband's raise and promotion happen, then the urgency becomes even greater to do this (imho).
4) Do not pay anything additional on your mortgages until you've maxed out on your 401(k) and paid off your credit cards. All things being equal, your mortgage is the cheapest money you can get and there should be no hurry to pay it off when you've got these other two things still pending. If you're really bent on trying to pay it faster, see if your lender will let you make a half payment every two weeks instead of once a month. At the end of the year, you will have made the equivalent of an extra payment. The key is you need to have the cash flow to swing a payment every two weeks.
5) Homeowners / car insurance. From what I can tell, I don't think this is a huge amount, but I'm guessing you've already shopped it to death and are taking advantage of having multiple policy discounts with the same carrier? Also, I don't know what your deductibles are, but I would suggest they be as high as you can reasonably handle to lower the monthly payment (ex: instead of $250 on your mortgage, make it $1000). Of course, you have to weigh the cost vs benefit...in some cases, you may just not be comfortable with it (ex: increasing your deductible by $750 to save $25 a year)...only you can make that call.
6) Flexible Spending Accounts - I don't know what your annual out-of-pocket medical expenditures are, but you might consider contributing pre-tax amounts to an FSA which you can file claims against (assumes your husband's employer offers this option and you spend enough that it would be advantageous to consider it)
7) Medical Mortgage - I'm not sure I'm familiar enough with the details, but if your parents spent any money for home improvements (assuming it is a home equity type loan), then they would be able to deduct a portion of their interest payments from their taxes. Of course, it's up to them whether or not they want to pass that along to you. I'm no tax accountant, so don't take my word for it...but if you haven't done so, I might suggest talking to one to see what potential might be there.
8) Additional Income - I don't know what limitations you have (health, time or otherwise), but in addition to your surveys, etc...there seem to be a number of online employers who look for at home workers to do all sorts of things (billing, collections, customer service, sales, etc). I know someone who was paid $10 an hour to make calls to clients who had signed up for a seminar...just to make sure they got all their materials and were still coming, etc. My guess is that if you could do it, you probabaly already would be...but putting it out there just in case.
Anyway, those are some of my initial ramblings...useful or not. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.
March 6th, 2007 at 08:14 am 1173168855
If this is something you are interested in, I can give you a list of legitimate paying survey sites, if you want to try them. By legitimate I mean that I have actually been paid by them. Many sites are either not legitimate or have tons of non-paying surveys and rarely, if ever, have ones that pay out.
March 6th, 2007 at 04:40 pm 1173199228
March 7th, 2007 at 01:52 am 1173232349
American Consumer Opinion Panel
Lightspeed Panel
Global Test Market
NFO MySurvey
The first one pays cash for surveys but you can't cash it out until you hit $5, which I easily do in a month. ACOP pays per survey or product test (no strings in the product testing, you never pay to test) Lightspeed, GTM and NFO give points that you can cash in for money or other prizes.